Babies are so completely helpless. The only things that they can do are to smile and laugh to win our hearts, and to cry to get our attention. Normal people reach out to these helpless beings with love and care. Monstrous, evil people rape them. That’s what 46-year-old Ohio death row inmate Steven Smith did – he intentionally raped his girlfriend’s 6-month-old daughter only to be (so he claims) surprised that he ended up killing the tiny baby.

Smith, who is try to get his death penalty commuted, claims that he got blind drunk and intended only to get sexual pleasure by assaulting 6-month old Autumn Carter. According to him, he was too drunk to realize that his acts would kill an infant. He makes this argument now because, under Ohio law, the death penalty can be imposed only if the convicted murderer intended to kill his victim. Smith essentially says he was too drunk even to form an intent.

Joseph Wilhelm and Tyson Fleming, who are Smith’s attorneys and who have the legal, and distasteful, obligation to give Smith the best defense possible, assert that “The evidence suggests that Autumn’s death was a horrible accident.” Even as they acknowledge how “shocking” the crime was, the attorneys argue that “Steve’s death sentence should be commuted because genuine doubts exist whether he even committed a capital offense.”

As it happens, Smith wasn’t actually tried for rape, but only for murder. The fact that the murder occurred in the course of a rape, however, is a factor in making the defendant eligible for capital punishment. The prosecutors say that his eleventh-hour effort to save his life by claiming drunkenness is just another despicable tactic on Smith’s part. According to them, poor Autumn’s injuries were consistent with murder, as well as rape. The prosecutors argue that Smith, a known drunk, assaulted Autumn in revenge against his girlfriend, who had refused to have sex with him the night before.